Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Laurel, I don't feel like working.
(00:05):
Let's talk then.
So, okay, I got a question for you
because I think this might happen
to a lot of creative people like us.
Where we think that the more equipment we get,
(00:27):
at least it happens to me,
I see, it happens to me with cameras
and with audio equipment and it goes like this.
I don't have as much time as I want
to devote to my creative endeavors, right?
Right.
And I think, okay, if I don't have time to devote to it,
(00:48):
and I'm not saying like we don't devote any time
because one thing, you know,
you could be in the camp of I never do any creative stuff.
Right.
We always use the equipment we buy and all that stuff.
Right.
We just don't have time to do it
as often as we need to do it.
Or we're not doing the part of it that is creative.
(01:11):
We do a lot of problem solving, a lot of tech stuff,
a lot of administrative stuff,
a lot of stuff that isn't creative.
So my purchases seem to fall into two categories.
One is I think, okay, I don't have time to do the stuff,
(01:31):
but when I get to do it,
I want to do it like the professionals.
So I spend all this time looking, okay,
what does Pixar use to do the voiceovers?
What does, you know, and I think some of that is good.
Yeah, because when you have limited amount of time,
you don't want to waste it on equipment
that is going to be getting in your way
(01:53):
instead of helping you.
And I think we've come to the conclusion that,
yes, our sound wasn't the best before.
We've actually upped our game a lot.
Yeah, I think if you look back at our previous videos
versus now, our sound is much better than it was.
Much better than it was.
But I have found out that, yeah,
(02:14):
you can spend all your time just buying new equipment
and not-
And then setting it up.
You lose a day every time.
But it's so nice to set it up.
All right, well-
Well, that's you though.
You like setting it up.
Oh my gosh, that drives me crazy.
I love it, I love it.
Okay, so then there's the other thing is,
(02:36):
the other category is I look for things
that will save us time.
You know, that's a big category.
That's also good, this is a bit misleading
because I'm spending a lot of time doing that.
But that has hardware such as those things
that we bought, the buttons.
Yeah, they can't see what you're pointing at.
Yeah, no, but-
(02:57):
Stream deck, the stream deck buttons.
The stream deck and gadgets like that
where I'm like, okay, can we just press a button
and then it hits record, press this other button
and it turns everything on
and we only have five minutes to do things.
So we're just gonna, you know.
And this came about because we realized
that at the beginning when we were setting up to do,
(03:20):
we were doing mocap and voice recording at the same time.
And to get everything set up,
it would be like an hour and a half
to get everything turned on.
And then you're like exhausted and frustrated.
It was ridiculous.
We had this list, it was like two or three pages long.
Single space, top to bottom, no margins.
It was crazy.
All the things we had to do.
(03:41):
Anyway, so those are the two main categories.
But I noticed that you can spend a lot of time.
Oh, here's another thing I was thinking about
because I heard this guy on YouTube say,
once you buy, and he was talking about the Newman U87,
(04:02):
you know, and he said five reasons why to get this
or not to get, things to think about.
And I forget all other four, but the fifth one was,
this is the last mic I've ever used.
This is the last microphone that you'll buy.
Ah, and then it's kind of sad
because you're used to looking at microphones.
Well, no, I think in his case, he was happy
(04:26):
because he was like, I used to spend all my time
getting, you know, like looking at the microphones.
And there's this level of unhappiness that I experienced.
I don't know if other people, you know, experience,
where you know your end goal.
Like, well, at least in your mind,
(04:48):
if you can't make the microphone that Pixar uses sound good.
Then the problem isn't the microphone.
The problem is you.
But until you get the one that you know
is the one that every, you know, that the top houses use,
you're feeling like, ah, it could be better.
(05:09):
It could be better.
I don't know if it's a little bit better or much better
because I can't try all that stuff and see.
But if I had the same preamps and I had the same microphone,
you know, maybe we would sound close to what they sound like.
And of course, then there's the talent
(05:30):
and all that stuff and doing the voices.
That's much, much harder to get.
They're expensive even compared to the microphones.
But here's a question.
Is that bug real or not?
Like, is it like, yes, you notice something is not wrong
(05:51):
and so you want to improve it?
Or do you feel like it's just a.
Is it valid or is it just.
Yeah, like.
I mean, I think there's a reason
that a lot of people agree on that microphone.
Yeah.
So, but yeah, I mean, there's always some yes
and some no, right?
You can hit an acceptable quality before you get there.
(06:16):
And at that point, you know, really what's the bottleneck?
Are people not connecting with the content
because your microphone is, you know,
12% worse than it should be?
Yeah.
Or is it because your content is 95% worse
than it needs to be, you know?
And that's another thing because we've sort of experienced
(06:37):
that with video ourselves where we got, you know,
when we were making our feature film,
we, at least I wanted a camera that was like,
what can I afford that would be used by.
An actual film.
An actual filmmaking group.
(06:58):
And of course, I didn't quite get that
because there were two flavors of this Panasonic camera.
One that was the one they used in productions
and one that is the one they sell you to people like me
who are scaled down.
Yeah, because you know, there's that decimal point
that you can only move it so far to the right.
(07:20):
So one, let's say was $35,000
and they offer you a one for $12,000
which is a ridiculously expensive camera.
But with some saving and you go, okay,
I can get that if I sell this, if I sell that
and if I do this, blah, blah, blah,
I can get that $12,000 camera.
(07:40):
Now, they tell you in the advertisements,
same image, same, you know, sensor,
same processing, blah, blah, blah,
just in a smaller body and a few things
that it doesn't support.
You really don't need.
Mm-hmm.
And the question there is like, okay,
but we used it, we filmed it, you know, whatever.
(08:04):
Now we go to release our movie
and whether we would have been able to get it ourselves
into movie theaters or whatever,
we released it when COVID, you know, came out.
So that was out of the equation, so we don't know.
But, you know, you put it on a place like Amazon Prime
(08:28):
and they only support HD and nobody can tell
whether you shot it on an iPhone
or whether you shot it with your expensive camera.
That is the truth.
And so now the question becomes like, you know,
I see some artists and you look at some artists
and they go, oh no, all I had was the microphone
(08:52):
that came with my computer, you know.
Right.
And they took that and they were able to make
the most amazing podcast ever
or the most amazing voiceover ever.
And this person is just known for being able to use
anything.
The computer speakers.
(09:12):
And.
But there are so many people that you listen to
that you think, you know, the content is interesting
but I cannot listen to the studio sound.
That is true.
It's driving me crazy.
They are the failed computer speaker.
Yeah.
And podcasters.
Yes, you don't want to be in that group, right?
(09:32):
So you want to say, okay, well, I bought the best microphone
that I could get.
I bought the Newman U87 and hey, you know what?
Pixar uses three microphones at the same time
on the person.
Three microphones.
So there we go.
Like I want to get all three microphones
just the way they have it.
(09:53):
It's not going that far.
And I want to treat the room the way they have it.
I want to do everything so that it sounds like
a Pixar production.
And then at the end people will be like,
oh, well that, yeah, I mean, it sounded good.
But.
(10:15):
It sounded good.
I just didn't want to listen to it.
I just didn't.
Well, not just that, but they can't tell, you know,
that you used like.
Yeah, they can't tell that.
Right.
Yeah, and that's the same thing actually
when you're trying to do research for audio
and you're listening to YouTube or whatever.
And they're like, and now you can hear, you know,
pay attention.
And it's like, no, I can't hear.
(10:36):
And we have actually pretty good monitoring speakers,
but YouTube just does not give you
a high enough quality output
to be able to tell some of that stuff.
Right, and you learn buzzwords like,
yeah, this one sounds a little bit warmer.
This one sounds a little bit cleaner.
I don't know.
And you're the whole time, you're like,
I can't really tell the difference between the.
(10:59):
No, actually, this is a complete tangent, but.
So now in our own studio,
as we've been playing with inserts
that let you do warm or, you know, different things.
Oh my goodness, warm is just distortion.
That's like a fancy word for like good distortion.
(11:20):
Yeah.
Because if you turn it up at all,
the thing turns into garbage,
but just that tiny bit makes it really nice.
And it really does make it feel like warmer
and less, I don't know, mechanical.
But if you turn it up at all too much,
it suddenly becomes garbage.
And that was like both a revelation
(11:42):
and a huge disappointment that warm
is a fancy word for good distortion.
And that's why the opposite is clean.
All right, well, I have bad news.
I have to work again.
Oh, then I guess we can't talk.
All right, well, thanks for tuning in and you know.
(12:05):
Talk to you later.
Talk to you later.